SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL dubbed the British ‘an island race’. He was right, with our nation itself an island, but his words are truer for some than others. There are hundreds of islands around the coast, ranging from large ones, such as Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides, covering more than 770 square miles, to myriad tiny, uninhabited ones barely big enough to moor a dinghy.
Island life can be a dream, promising sea, seclusion and satisfaction—but does the reality match the fantasy? Is it feasible or impractical? Idyllic or too isolated? Most island dwellers say they wouldn’t swap it for the world, but to live the life requires practicality, pragmatism and adopting a routine shaped by sea and tide.
Rev Canon Dr Sarah Hills, vicar, Holy Island
Sarah Hills swims in the sea off St Cuthbert’s Beach in Northumberland every few days. ‘It can be freezing, but it’s so refreshing, both physically and spiritually,’ she reflects.
She moved to Holy Island, often referred to as Lindisfarne, in 2019, after five years as canon for reconciliation at Coventry Cathedral. ‘I had a very deep sense of calling to come here,’ Sarah says of the island that, covering 1,000 acres at high tide, is often referred to as a ‘thin’ place, with Earth and Heaven deemed to be particularly close together. It is known for its castle, once the holiday home of COUNTRY LIFE founder Edward Hudson and improved by Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll.
Denne historien er fra July 22, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra July 22, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
